A weblog for anyone interested in adult education and the Workers' Educational Association.
Written by Peter Templeton, WEA Director of Membership, Volunteering & Marketing

11/26/2011

I’m writing this on my way home from the WEA East Midlands AGM. That was my fourth AGM in a month and, again, an enjoyable and thought provoking day. I’ve been to Eastern, North East and North West as well on my journeys but had to miss another six which clashed.

Overall, it’s really striking how different the character of each region is – and yet how much in common they have about the purpose and value of the WEA. Inevitably, there were questions in different places about how decisions are made on minimum class size, concessionary fees, the complexity of procedures and paperwork, the need to improve publicity and find new tutors. I think these issues may always have been raised in WEA AGMs but I’ve met almost 240 people in the last four weeks who are prepared to come to a Saturday meeting because they want the Association to succeed – and I’ve learnt a lot.

Today’s meeting included a talk by Cynthia Brown ‘Paths laid with ruin – drugs and the Victorians’ - mostly around opium and arsenic it covered social policy, poverty, literature and the enterprising approach the British had to selling opium into China and the wars they started when the Chinese resisted this trade.

My presentation to each AGM has evolved as I’ve gone round. Today, I concentrated more on volunteering and membership but, inevitably, after this year the issue of how to improve communication across the WEA was one of the main themes. In one region someone said ‘it’s not change that’s the issue, it’s the communication. It’s got to really be two way’.

People agree the need for clarity around membership and volunteering. It’s almost as if a conversation started ages ago but never got past the initial exchanges. The potential as well as the problems were discussed in every AGM I went to. In the discussions there were plenty of ideas: find out more about our members - their skills and interests; be clear about their roles; leave room for creativity; acknowledge and thank volunteers for their work; keep a campaigning edge – the WEA is a movement for social change; give them as much of a break as possible on admin and compliance issues; find ways for new people to be involved in shaping things.

There were concerns about how much is asked of members and volunteers. Equally, I think people agreed that with 54,000 members, engaging and making even 1% of them into new WEA activists would be a massive additional resource to the Association.

There are questions around what the benefits are to members and we do need to be clear about this. On volunteering one longstanding member in East Midlands, Ivor Moon, asked me if I thought that the greatest benefit of volunteering is in doing it. What could I say but yes?

In Nottingham, the discussion and reports before I spoke touched on issues around new volunteers, local decision making, social purpose education, digital inclusion, campaigning and community leadership. In some respects, whilst localism, challenging authority, voluntary activity and addressing inequality are current issues in the news - they’re new but old in the WEA.

I know there are lots of doubts about the potential of social media – particularly with older people. My mother, who is just 80, told me that she wasn’t really any good with computers – all she could use was Skype and Facebook. I said I thought that was pretty good but she then said they didn’t count because they were just for ‘keeping in touch’ with grandchildren and family. She’s right, it’s the C in ICT that is developing so quickly – ‘Communication’.

Despite my lengthy new job title, it’s communication that’s becoming the key issue for me. Within the WEA that's a challenge I expect will be absorbing and fascinating.

11/19/2011

I've just got home from attending and speaking at WEA North West Region's AGM in Manchester. That's my third regional AGM in three weeks since WEA Conference. One more to go next week in Nottingham before reporting to Association Committee.

Another enjoyable day with very welcoming colleagues. This was combined with some excellent discussions and presentations. A really inspirational TRIP project linking the WEA in Accrington and Bury with Uganda was fascinating. It is really striking how far NW has gone in trying to integrate WEA values and curriculum principles throughout its provision. They'd be first to say more to do but it's great to meet new staff so keen to apply these ideas in their work.

Once again I was asking views on the development of of Membership, Volunteering and Marketing in the WEA and, once again, points were made that really helped - and I probably should have thought of myself. There's no doubt that the WEA is going through a bit of a resurgence in its own democracy and debate. All three AGMs have had a positive atmosphere combined with a determination around social purpose education, the importance of our work being shaped from the ground up and a desire to build communication, up and down the organisation and laterally.

I've been adding ideas to the draft strategy as I go along and there were several more today. For example, I was asked why the WEA doesn't appear in a Google search against qualifications we offer when we often have lower fees than other providers. Not the usual 'distinctiveness of WEA provision' point but a really sensible question on how we place ourselves in a market and help adult learners find us.

Because several WEA regions have AGMs on the same Saturdays in November, there are five I've missed in England as well as Scotland. I hope I'll be able to find ways to meet these other colleagues in the New Year.

11/16/2011

Henry Tam's asks: What next for the WEA? http://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-next-for-wea.htmlHis blog - 'Question the Powerful' is a collection of short essays on politics and society. To build inclusive communities, we should question ideas and practices which give rise to power inequalities.

11/05/2011

Detlev, the chair of one of their many branches, met me at the station. We'd got talking the previous week at Conference in Nottingham and we arranged to chat before the meeting.

I'm going to a different AGM each Saturday this month. Good turn out, more than 100 there. I was quite surprised at how many people I knew. Several new staff there, too.

I enjoyed hearing the reports on the Biennial Conference from staff and volunteers - seeing the events on both days from their point of view. Lots of comments on the Spirit Level and Community Learning Champions as well as the excitement and tension of Conference decisions.

One idea I liked was their early preparation for the region's Centenary. They are circulating a digital flip video camera around their branches (over 130). Someone from one branch goes to another, makes a short film and then shows someone there how to use the camera. They then leave the camera with them and ask them to film and pass it on (both the camera and how to use it) to another branch.

I described some of my ideas for membership, volunteering and marketing and we had a brief discussion. Here's my presentation Download AGM presentation

I'm using my visited to AGMs to develop my thinking and feed it back to a reference group. Newcastle next week.

10/21/2011

Finally managed to put in comments on BIS FE consultation - New Challenges and New Chances. This is what I said:

Adults considering studying in FE need reliable information before considering entering debt to support their study. This is a potential drag on skills acquisition in the economy.

Whilst repayment of loans is dependent on salary, what evidence is there that median salaries for adults with FE Level 3 qualifications significantly exceed £21,000 pa? Public investment (in providing loans) may never be recovered whilst debt-averse adults decide not to improve their skills because they fear the debt.

Adults in FE are already co-funding to 50% on much of Adult Learning provision leading to qualifications. They also pay dramatically escalating fees to awarding organisations (often in the private sector).

It is reasonable to make loans available to adults studying in FE. However, the HE model with its assumptions around age, length of career, lifetime salaries and attitudes to debt is unlikely to succeed in FE.

It is quite possible that the introduction of loans will significantly reduce take up of qualifications leading to skills just at the point in the economic cycle when they are most needed.

The introduction of FE loans on this model to adults over 24 for Access to HE courses will create barriers to debt averse working class adults considering Higher Education. This may lead them to abandon an HE ambition or to enrol inappropriately early to an HE course without taking a valuable access route.

There will be adults from communities where paying interest on loans is culturally prohibited as usury.

Although the consultation doesn't close until 31st October, we're aware that the earlier ideas and comments are made, the more time officials at BIS (the Department of Business Innovation & Skills) will have to consider them as they prepare proposals.

The government also would like to know the views of learners, tutors and the general public on adult learning through a short online survey. The WEA is encouraging everyone to express their views by completing the short NIACE online survey by 31 October 2011. The survey is aimed at current learners as well as people who are not currently learning. You can access the survey by clicking on the link below

09/27/2011

The WEA's Biennial Conference is in Nottingham on 28th October with the theme: Equality, Inclusion and Action in Adult Education.

We want to welcome as many people as possible to contribute to the debate. The one-day conference is hosted by the Workers’ Educational Association and supported by the Co-operative College, on Friday 28 October, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham.

Speakers include John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, David Hughes Chief Executive of NIACE, Dame Pauline Green President of the International Co-operative Alliance, Richard Wilkinson, author of ‘The Spirit Level’ and more.

Further information is attached or can be obtained directly from mchica@wea.org.uk or on 020 7426 3486.

08/04/2011

I'm three days into my new role in the WEA: Director of Membership, Volunteering and Marketing. A big change for me in an organisation I've been involved with for over 30 years. Not the first change though; I've been a student, branch member, tutor, tutor-organiser before becoming a director.

I'm really looking forward to the new role. Almost 50,000 members and over 100 years of history to work with! I think the first priority is to link the new role into the main business of the WEA - adult education in communities across the country. That's going to need a systematic approach and hard work on communication. Won't get too far before my summer holiday but I've got plenty of ideas to knock into shape and I want to make sure we make progress quickly.

I've always enjoyed discussions with members and volunteers in the WEA as much as with tutors and students. I'm looking forward to much more of that - and developing ideas into action.

08/03/2011

The consultation on the review of Informal Adult Community Learning is still not out - but on its way. In a discussion last week I was reminded that there are already potentially useful ways of assessing the benefit of this learning without endlessly saying how valuable it is but then judging it on qualification success rates or employment progress (although everyone agrees as ever these are very important).

The area worth looking at is the idea of GLOs - Generic Learning Outcomes. I can see the winces from here but there is something in it that takes us beyond the evident limitations of RARPA. At its best RARPA is just good teaching to support learning. In practice, however, it sometimes feels like an offering to Ofsted that the inspectors themselves don't find very satisfying. That's down to the individualism of it which has taken the correct idea of student/learner centred education and turned it into a Kafka-esque world of landscape tables, managerialism and pseudo statistics.

GLO comes from the wold of Museums, Libraries and Archives and has a simple but broad approach that looks like this:

You can find more out about it here: http://www.inspiringlearningforall.gov.uk/toolstemplates/genericlearning/

I think this needs to be examined further as we slowly move to a new paradigm for adult community learning: no longer a subset of Skills and Qualifications but with its own approach that works for individuals and communities throughout their lives.

The difficulty is that we try to prove the value of IACL to audiences which may never recognise it whatever is said.

08/01/2011

Across England the WEA has been successful with six bids to the Adult & Community Learning Fund. A diverse range of projects were approved as part of the Skills Funding Agency grants programme which is managed by NIACE. Bids were invited to maximise the contribution of community learning to the Big Society and engage and motivate disadvantaged adults.

The six successful WEA projects are in the North East, West Cumbria, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, London and the East Midlands. All the projects look to build the engagement of adults from disadvantaged communities in projects around a range of issues such as health improvement, advocacy, shaping services and learning opportunities and building confidence in community governance and leadership. There is a very strong local partnership theme in all the projects:

The Stoke-on-Trent project concentrates on health improvement with working men from Black and minority ethnic communities; West Cumbria will using local champions to build advocacy and services and learning opportunities for people with physical disabilities living in deprived areas; the North East project focuses on health volunteering; in Manchester adults from disadvantaged communities will use digital media to engage with the city’s cultural venues and design their own film, art and photography courses; the East Midlands project aims to inspire diverse women to become involved in voluntary leadership roles in Informal Adult Community Learning; The London project will help some of the most disadvantaged Londoners engage with and make connections between neighbourhood, local and London-wide governance in civic participation, adult learning and community-based sustainability.